Privacy... Some care about it but most don't.
I have been wanting to get a VPN since a while but it's not so easy for me to pay by using a bank because I don't use them since many years. There's also the point that even if I did own a bank card, then what is the point really of getting a VPN to stay anonymous, but then pay with a card registered to your name? Firstly I was looking at Tor Guard and it appealed to me because I like that Tor exists, and the VPN service has good ratings and reviews and most of all, that you can pay with Crypto. I did try to pay with Monero (XMR) because its anonymous, but after several attempts it didn't work.
If you would like that nobody can spy on you by reading your emails and don't want to have others in the future causing problems from your Collected Data then its best to not be using Gmail, or Hotmail and other company's alike because they give no promises that your mail is private. When people say they have nothing to hide and that they don't need a VPN, that's just exactly what the people who collect data on you want you to say. The truth is for example that FakeBook Messenger, if you read the small print, has some very worrying parts to the Terms & Conditions that everyone has legally agreed to. You want to know?! Ill copy and paste as quoted from the Huffinton Post:
Allows the app to record audio with microphone. This permission allows the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation.
Allows the app to take pictures and videos with the camera. This permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your confirmation.
Allows the app to read you phone's call log, including data about incoming and outgoing calls. This permission allows apps to save your call log data, and malicious apps may share call log data without your knowledge.
Allows the app to read data about your contacts stored on your phone, including the frequency with which you've called, emailed, or communicated in other ways with specific individuals.
Allows the app to read personal profile information stored on your device, such as your name and contact information. This means the app can identify you and may send your profile information to others.
Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. This permission allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a call.
Allows the app to get a list of accounts known by the phone. This may include any accounts created by applications you have installed.
In the future when cash is no more, Data will be the new currency.
People have the right to have privacy, and you have all the information about you to hide, although its most likely too late and Facebook has all those years, most likely a decade of everything you added on Facebook. You remember that "craze" of tagging on the map your location and posting it? Every emotion icon you used after writing something? What you ate for dinner, your eating habits. The clothes you wear and buy. You have most likely gave a good 3d map of your own home also from taking photos of every single thing that you ate, or drank, or got given, or brought for yourself. Maybe a decade or more? How long and how often did \ do you post to Facebook and take selfies? Facial expressions have surely been collected and not to mention a constant need to scroll and to see what others are doing has become an addiction.
Anyway this post isn't and wont turn into a Facebook post!
Ok , I hear some people saying "So what could be done with all this collected data, and why is it so powerful?"
To keep it short, here's a very easy example that just arose in thought - we all know that spy's are used in wars I'm sure, dating back 100's of years with double agents and triple agents even. It must be very powerful to know what people are doing if spy's were and are so common that they even make films about them? Just from watching a movie you can see the effects of collecting information on people so from this retrospect-
What's the difference even if there's no physical war, but a war to win your mind?!
There's a really good film, its a German film but I'm sure there's subtitles and English versions. The film is called "The Life of Others". When I watched this I couldn't believe that it was a recent history. It shows what happened in the cold war there, and how spying is so powerful how it manipulated people into doing terrible things even to family members because other people had secret information on them that they were blackmailed with, or face prison for un-true accusations and false evidence and lies.
Image I hear and see many people now, everyday people having VPN's on their phones and computers, and awareness is spreading and more advertising of VPN's are being created and seen. I personally don't use Facebook to message people since a while and I choose to just use encrypted email services instead as an app on a smartphone. I use- and I notice many others are also using Proton Mail, which is website based with also an app for android and most likely for all devices. Its encrypted so much so, that if you ever have to reset your password then all your previous messages are in encryption format when you log back in- and even Proton Mail themselves say that they are not able do de-crypt the mails.
Setting up an Email, is very easy with the App or online at the website, and then you can get the free VPN they offer also.
There's also a Desktop App for it as well for windows or MacOs found here
You get 2 free servers to use in the Netherlands and in the USA to use, but I believe for p2p you must have the paid version, and unlike other free VPNs this one dosn't just stop working after some time.
There are many other VPN's out there available, and I have no affiliation to Protonmail or ProtonVPN, I'm just a happy user of both products and would like to share the knowledge for other Steemians who want a VPN but are not sure how to start or where to look. This post was for you!
Stop -
Boasting about what your doing and who your doing it with and then giving that info to the governments. You CANNOT trust them with information about your private life. If you don't care and are shrugging your shoulders at this article - then that's a sad one because that means they have taken even your will to have true freedoms.
Start -
Being more humble, and loose the newly formed "need" to be looking at the screen every 10 seconds when you have nothing to do. In these moments of having nothing to do, this is YOUR PERSONAL TIME - something that is getting less and less as technology consumes our lives.